Research how much life-coaches use/do not use individualised client plans.

How can the life-coach monitor the effectiveness of his/her program for a client?

Create and evaluate an action plan for a real person/client, including monitoring.

HOW ARE LIFE COACHING CAREERS BUILT?
While developing skills may be the first step in the journey to a career in life coaching, learning alone doesn't guarantee employment and career success.

Most life coaching opportunities involve self employment. In other cases a life coach may work in a multi-disciplinary team at a health centre, which may involve the life coach working for themselves or for someone else.

Other ways may involve work for someone else is under the guise of another job. The first thing to understand is that there are many jobs in society which might not be called "life coach", but may utilise life coaching skills, or involve providing a similar type of service that a life coach provides. Related jobs can sometimes evolve and turn into something which might for all intents and purposes, be life coaching. For example:

Consider a teacher who demonstrates a certain type of empathy with students, may be asked to take on a role of student counsellor or career advisor.

Consider a counsellor who is confronted by clients who have fitness issues, eating problems, financial difficulties, and other challenges. Over time, a counsellor may broaden their knowledge and expertise; and find themself, out of necessity, helping people across a broad gambit of issues, beyond just psychological.

An employment consultant may find themselves utilising life coaching skills when working with their clients helping them find employment.

A hairdresser or massage therapist may find themselves having conversations with their clients about their client’s lives and the issues they are having. The conversations may have some similarities to a life coaching course, with the hairdresser or massage therapist engaging in active listening and possibly helping the client structure their thoughts, gain a new perspective, set goals, etc.

Working for Yourself
To become a life coach you will first need to develop the necessary skill set. Most people will start by studying a Life Coaching short course, certificate or diploma to learn perspectives and techniques to help them work with clients. Your own personal life experiences and skills will shape your life coaching practice, and in the beginning it is wise to specialise in areas that you already have expertise, qualifications or experience in.

Capitalising on your existing skills and networks can be a powerful way to start your life coaching business. One way to build a life coaching practice is to start by offering coaching services in the area that you have had experience in, targeting existing clients and utilising your existing reputation in that area. You may initially provide a narrower range of services related to your specialty and then broaden the services over time, evolving your business to offer a comprehensive life coaching service.

You will most likely find it easier to start your business building on the strengths that you already have. If you have a degree, certificate or work experience in something; consider how you might use that existing knowledge and experience as leverage to get started toward a career in life coaching. There are many professions that will develop relevant skills for life coaching.

Here are some examples of how this might evolve:

If you are already a personal trainer, after studying life coaching you might slowly incorporate life coaching into your training where appropriate. As you develop as a life coach you may bring life coaching aspects into your training more and more, until you become a specialist coach that offers your clients a life coaching service that includes fitness training where necessary. If you are interested in health aspects, it is likely you will also study nutrition, or psychology so you can offer a holistic service.

If you have experience in business, maybe running your own business or working in commerce you may find that you want to change your career to help people more. Your journey into life coaching may start with studying life coaching to gain some understanding of this perspective. You may recognise the value of your business knowledge and decide to begin by offering business coaching services to some of the businesses you already work with, or your family and friends. As the needs arise you may offer coaching around your client’s personal issues, which over time may evolve into a more holistic life coaching approach.

If you have worked in a bank you may have realised that many people don’t have a clue about finances. You may be really motivated to help people and you can see that this is an area that you know a lot about, that other people may not. By studying life coaching you can gain an understanding of people, and ways to work with them. You may start out by helping people manage their finances, but then realise that there can be other things involved that affect people’s spending, like their self-esteem, work satisfaction, etc so evolve into offering your clients a complete life coaching service.

On the other hand, you might be starting your life coaching career as a fresh start, and may not be bringing any professional skills to the table. This does not mean that you will not succeed as a life coach, and whether you recognise it or not, you will still be bringing years of experience and insight from your own life experiences. If you are starting from scratch without an existing network or client base you may need a more strategic approach, with a more aggressive marketing campaign to get your business up and running.

ACS Student Testimonials: Life Coaching
"I have done several counselling courses in the past and the coaching course fitted in well with the learning experiences I had encountered previously. The reading material was detailed and interesting and the feedback was detailed and constructive."
Sarah, UK - Life Coaching course.

"[The course] provides a thorough introduction to the practices of Life Coaching. It provides very good learning materials and practical assignments at end of each lesson. The comments from my tutor are always very encouraging and positive. The services from school administrative staff are excellent."
Wai Ming Au, Singapore - Life Coaching course.

"Yes [the course was a valuable learning experience]. It provided useful tools and information and assignments/set tasks provided greater insight into topics. [The course] was better than expected. The tutor was fantastic, gave great feedback and was also very motivating. It has given me the confidence to begin offering Life Coaching services."
Rebecca Cox, UK, Life Coaching course.

HOW THE COURSE WORKS
You can start the course at any time.

It is studied by distance learning, so you can study in the comfort of your own home. But this doesn't mean you are all alone in your studies. Our highly qualified and friendly tutors are there to help you every step of the way. If you have any questions at all, they are always happy to help.

THE ADVANTAGES OF STUDYING WITH ACS

You can start the course at any time and study at your own pace (we do not impose a time limit for you to complete your studies).

Fit your studies around your own busy lifestyle - we provide full tutor support for all the time you are studying.

Study where you want to - online studies offer the flexibility for you to determine where and when you study.

WHY SHOULD YOU STUDY THIS COURSE?

Learn to help others find a better life.

Prepare you for a new career as a life coach.

Fill in the gaps in your life knowledge and experience. What are your weak points (health, fitness, finance, management, communication, knowledge)?

Improve your knowledge through reading and studying?

Establish a business.

Become a better life coach with training to add to your experience.

Start a new and rewarding career in Life Coaching and help people to find new and better ways to live their lives.

This course focusses on how to become a life coach. Do you want to be a life coach?

Support people to change their lives!

Life coaching is a rewarding and fulfilling career. This course will teach you how to help others. Support them to lose weight, be promoted, find a new career, resolve difficult problems. It will enable people in health, fitness, counselling, social work and other professions to help others set and achieve life goals.

Develop your skills in setting and achieving goals, not only for yourself but for those who seek your assistance.

ACS Distance Education is an organisational member of the Association For Coaching. Students on the course are eligible to join the association as student members.

Meet some of our academics

Gavin Cole B.Sc.,M.Psych.Psychologist, Educator, Author, Psychotherapist.
B.Sc., Psych.Cert., M. Psych. Cert.Garden Design, MACA
Gavin has over 25 years of experience in psychology, in both Australia and England. He has co-authored several psychology text books and many courses including diploma and degree level courses in psychology and counselling. Gavin has worked for ACS for over 10 years.

Lyn Quirk M.Ed.,Dip.Med.,Dip.SportsOver 35 years as Health Club Manager, Fitness Professional, Teacher, Coach and Business manager in health, fitness and leisure industries. As business owner and former department head for TAFE, she brings a wealth of skills and experience to her role as a tutor for ACS.M.Prof.Ed.; Adv.Dip.Compl.Med (Naturopathy); Adv.Dip.Sports Therapy

Tracey Jones Tracey has enjoyed creative writing since she was a child. She has had several short stories published and a novella. She is also a keen writer of children's stories and poetry. She has also written many academic and non-fiction books in the fields of psychology, sociology, child development, writing and marketing.

Check out our eBooks

Working With PeopleAre you a "people person" looking for a job; or a better understanding of careers that might suit you? If so, this book was written for YOU!

Aerobic FitnessAerobic exercise is critical for maintaining every aspect of a persons wellbeing. This book shows you the exercise you need to do to keep your lungs, heart and circulatory system fit. Originally published as a printed book by Simon and Schuster. This new edition is improved and available as an ebook.
It explains what aerobic fitness is and the exercises you can do to maintain an peak level of aerobic fitness. It is a valuable reference both for fitness professionals, and also for anyone just wanting to improve their own personal fitness.

Counselling HandbookA book for both students, as well as volunteers who may be involved in helping people with problems.
This is a starting point for understanding counselling, and a reference for developing counselling skills.
The book contains seven chapters:
1. Where can counselling be used
2. How to see behind the mask
3. Emotions and attitudes
4. How to communicate better when all you have is words
5. Theory versus practice
6. Diffusing difficult situations
7. Golden rules or tips

How to be a Life CoachLife coaching is a relatively new profession - although coaches have been around for a long time in the guise of trainers, instructors, managers and tutors for various professions and disciplines. Life coaching is not easily defined, but it is a type of mentoring which focuses on helping individuals to achieve what they would like to achieve and thereby to lead more fulfilling lives. Unlike other forms of coaching, it takes place outside of the workplace and is concerned with all aspects of a person’s life.

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